P&L District: 12th & Main Site Proposal

[kcdcchef]

in my trips to kansas city i have not been in the town pavilion in years. that sucks all those places went out, but it will now make a comeback i would guess, with the area getting re done.

is city center square empty now too?? i remember mcdonalds, baskin robbins, taco place of somekind, and a few others. is it intact?

[Long]

in my trips to kansas city i have not been in the town pavilion in years. that sucks all those places went out, but it will now make a comeback i would guess, with the area getting re done.

is city center square empty now too?? i remember mcdonalds, baskin robbins, taco place of somekind, and a few others. is it intact?

On the third floor of TP--

there used to be seating both on the west side and back to the east in the Boley Building, along with food vendors extending back from the esclator into the Boley Building to the east-- now that whole east wing is vacant

I know the "food court" is the suburban mall model of dining, and that making it inward facing instead of on the street is bad as far as the rules of urban design go, but the seating area on the third floor with all the glass area is actually a pretty nice, well lit space, its sort of cool to sit up high and look out over the street.

the second level was converted to office space and the retail was removed-- but this ultimately might be a good thing, because you'd think retail would prefer to occupy the ground level street frontage space when it does make a comeback

City Center Square's food court is pretty much full, except for just one space I think, they just recently removed all the hard surfaces in the food court, and installed carpeting and acoustic ceiling tiles, which lowered the noise in there by about 500%, and replaced all the tables and chairs with your typical trendy silver metal round tables and chairs.  Its still a dungeon, but better than it was.

[scooterj]

[49r]

They were really going to town on that thing this Labor day!

[Long]

Too bad they didn't accidentally knock over that skywalk.

[KCPowercat]

Too bad they didn't accidentally knock over that skywalk.

just what I was thinking

[kcdcchef]

i was wondering if there would be anything left to look at in a couple of weeks, but guess not. oh well.

[KCDowntown]

www.powerandlightliving.com has been updated.  There aren't any new renderings of the building.  But there is an updated site plan of the block (albeit a very tiny one).

Quick impression is that the parking lot got a little bigger, and all of the buildings on the block will have condos in them at some point.

KCDowntown

[scooterj]

Don't know if this was mentioned anywhere else or not but this was in the Star on 9/13:

Cordish has hired the Chicago architectural firm of Booth Hansen Associates to design the 240-unit condominium tower planned for the block where the old Jones Store is being demolished, Hicks said. Cordish officials have said previously the tower is expected to be about 22 stories tall and would open in 2007.

[...]

On the way out, the old Jones Store is scheduled to be demolished and its site prepared for new construction by the end of October, McClure said. Besides the condo tower, Cordish plans to build the grocery store, a fitness center and a parking garage on the block. On the way in, excavation for the Sprint Center construction is expected to begin Wednesday.

[ComandanteCero]

hmm.... wasn't too impressed with the previous work they show on their website.  This was the only large
urban building i found:

[Tosspot]

That building looks remarkably similar to some of the older renderings of the P&L district's condo buildings.

[tat2kc]

That building has greenspace on one side! Burn it down! its not urban!

[LenexatoKCMO]

That building has greenspace on one side! Burn it down! its not urban!

I believe the original site plan for this block called for a garden on top of the health club, behind the 22 story condo tower.  If they follow through with that they might as well put it at 119th and metcalf. 

[ComandanteCero]

That building looks remarkably similar to some of the older renderings of the P&L district's condo buildings.

yeah, that's what i was thinking. 

[Tosspot]

That building has greenspace on one side! Burn it down! its not urban!

A dash of greenery here and there is nice; see Pennsylvania street in Westport.

Greenery gets stupid when the buildings are fronted by a 150 feet of grass, all in the name of the misbegotten yearning for "park-like space" for no other reason than the sake of park-like space.

[staubio]

A dash of greenery here and there is nice; see Pennsylvania street in Westport.

Greenery gets stupid when the buildings are fronted by a 150 feet of grass, all in the name of the misbegotten yearning for "park-like space" for no other reason than the sake of park-like space.

Green space = good
Setbacks = bad

Toss, Michael and all of us urban cheerleaders never said grass is bad in all cases.

[ComandanteCero]

seems like a big retreat from the earlier statement that they would try to get a starchitect for the tower.  It would have been awesome to see some crazy cool Zaha Hadid designed tower downtown..... I realize these days everyone wants a starchitect building so they can act like their city is big-time or hip, but i simply think we need to continue punching originality into our urban core's architecture (while respecting the principles for good urbanism).  Obviously, you don't NEED a starchitect for original architecture, but a starchitect name definitely guarantees a track record, and a reputation to stand behind once everyone start writing letters about how much they hate the new building... lol.

[Long]

seems like a big retreat from the earlier statement that they would try to get a starchitect for the tower.  It would have been awesome to see some crazy cool Zaha Hadid designed tower downtown..... I realize these days everyone wants a starchitect building so they can act like their city is big-time or hip, but i simply think we need to continue punching originality into our urban core's architecture (while respecting the principles for good urbanism).  Obviously, you don't NEED a starchitect for original architecture, but a starchitect name definitely guarantees a track record, and a reputation to stand behind once everyone start writing letters about how much they hate the new building... lol.

I think they were talking about a firm named "Starchitect."

The idea that Cordish would hire a big-name architect to design one of the residential towers seems like sort of a waste of resources. . . I'd rather see a big-name do the "Live" block, something that the public actually gets to engage instead of just looking at from a distance.

Imagine a canopy over the central courtyard space by Santiago Calatrava.

[scooterj]

[shinatoo]

Once they do in the Blue Ridge Mall we will have to start a "Jones Store demolition thread" we will add the Banister and Metro north locations next.